August 17, 2013. St. Peter Port

August 17, 2013. St. Peter Port

Today we are in St. Peter Port the capital of Guernsey, one of the Channel islands. Technically they are not part of Great Britain, but a possession of the royal family. This provides a convenient tax shelter. It is only 80 miles from the coast of Britain and services as a holiday destination for both the English and French. While English is predominant, french is also spoken. During WW II Guernsey along with the nearby island ofJersey were occupied by Germany.

During my pre-cruise research I found a bus that did a circle of the island in 90-minutes and only cost £2. We took the ride and while we did see some nice scenery and lots of WWII bunkers, it was the condenses that it was a waste of time. The town itself has a nice walking district, with many shops and restaurants. We walked around for about an hour and caught the tender back to the ship. We might have been better off taking a walking tour. There is a small Occupation Museum that we missed.

Today is the first meeting of the cruise critic group. It is a good place to meet fellow travelers.

Dress tonight is formal. I bring my tux because it is easier because everything fits together. I am interested to see how many passengers do get dressed up. The fact that we are doing 10 ports in 12 days makes it less likely that you want to go thru the process of getting all dressed up for a glass of champagne and a speech by the Captain. You don't even get to shake his hand.

Tomorrow we are in Cork and have booked a tour of the Blarney Castle.

Evelyn and I attended the Cruise Critic meeting and met a nice couple from Dallas. Very well traveled and are doing the full cruise to NYC.

Guess what's back - the plate of canapés... This has been going on for the last four Princess cruises. I must say the quality has gotten better.

Yesterday I had a voice mail from the Maitre d'Hotel welcoming us on board. I didn't think anything about it. I figured they had an automated system that made the calls. Well today I got a call from his assistant wanting to know when I was having dinner tonight. I told him 7pm and he said to come to the Islands dining room and he would have a table for us. That never happened before. Waiting to see what comes next.

We met Lanny and Elaine in the Skywalker Lounge, they have the no-host party for suite cabins every night. The ship provides the food and you buy your own drinks.

So we go down to the Island dining room at 7pm. There is a long line of people waiting to get in. We bypass the line and I tell them that Mario (Maitre d') made a 7pm reservation for us. Next Mario is there welcoming us and he introduces us to Catalini (Head Waiter) and say that from now on we should come straight into the dining room and Catalini will have a table for us. Then Catalini shows us to a four person table by the window. Our waiter is Alicia from Jamaica. The service and food were excellent. I know it has just been two days, but it seems Princess has really improved there food. It wasn't bad before, but they have really improved the menu.

After dinner we saw Scott Harris, a Canadian comedian, who was very funny, though I fell asleep for part of the act.


Sent from my iPad

Hal